BobWard

I am about to purchase SF2V. I saw some ads about hi-resolution terrain files from Razbam, but they seem to only be for WOV. Are there any hi-resolution terrains available for SF2V? Bob

This topic was originally posted on another thread, but we were having some trouble getting the movie to play correctly without clipping off a lot of the image frames. So I have now posted the movie to a video hosting website that should let you view the movie (with no image clipping) while it is downloading, i.e., no 15 minute wait to download the file - it starts playing the moment you click the Play icon. I think you may need "Flash" to play the movie, but I assume most of you have that on your computer. Some background: I recently put together a movie using some of my gun and belly camera film from my F-100 combat missions in Vietnam. I merged this film into flight scenes that I set up in SF2V. It includes some of my actual radio calls during missions and also includes a complete music soundtrack. The movie shows an F-100 mission from start-up, taxi, takeoff, enroute to target, ordinance delivery and return to base. The flight scenes show an F-100 rolling in on a target and releasing ordinance, at which point the movie transitions to the actual combat footage and follows the ordinance to impact. I produced the movie with Sony Vegas Movie Studio. The movie is about 24 minutes long. I think the simulated flight scenes show how well SF2V merges in with the real thing. I set-up all the SF2V flight simulations to match the weapons load-out that I was delivering in the actual combat film. Here is the link for the movie. Watch in HD if your computer and Internet connection will support it without stuttering. I tried the link and it works for me. However, I got some micro-stutters when I went to full-screen mode. It did run smooth in the smaller window that opens up when you select the link below. Experiment with your computer and see what runs the smoothest. http://vimeo.com/bobward/f-100-combat-film-captiain-bob-ward-vietnam-1970 Hope you enjoy it. Bob Ward

MigBuster, I have attached a page from my -1 which includes a Caution note on the AB operation and compressor stalls. This note makes no mention of high-G loads when engaging AB but if my memory serves me right, I always remember being a little cautious when lighting the AB under high-Gs, if possible, unload the plane for just a second until you got a light, then resume back pressure and hang on. High-G compressor stalls may have had something to do with slightly disrupted intake airfow at high angles of attack. However, there is some text at the bottom of the attached page that cautions against lighting the burner at the full throttle position. Seems like I always remember pulling the throttle back slightly before slecting AB. So it may have been a throttle position issue more than G-load. The instance that I previously described with the fire shooting out the nose was a night re-fueling mission. No reason there to be doing high-G turns. Seems like my wingman & I went to burner to catch up with the tanker before we lost sight in a slightly overcast sky. So in that case, I was probably straight and level and the nozzles did not open when I selected AB, resulting in the compressor stall. It was not something that happened all the time, even with G-loads, just once in a while. I don't remember any info on the engines, although some of the text in the attachment makes reference to the J57-21A/21 engines. I do not remember ever hearing of a fix to eliminate this problem in the F-100. Bob F-100 AB Caution.pdf

MigBuster, Don't despair. In my opinion, the real F-100 was much more robust than the one in SF2. I remember it as being a very agile bird, with better acceleration than exhibited by the SF2 version. It also had good roll and turning characteristics. One downside was the "mushing" tendency when pulling out of a dive. I think a lot of the Century series fighters had this characteristic, maybe even modern day fighters. That led to a few (3 or 4) pilots in our wing (during my SEA tour in 1970) scrapping the trees on pulloffs from low altitude deliveries (15-degree dive angles with naps and high drag bombs). It also had a tendancy to compressor stall if you lit the AB with a high G-load - I have seen fire shoot out the air intake on the nose of the plane - happened to me one evening just as it was getting dark. In addition to the flame out of the nose, you get quite a thump on the cockpit floor when the compressor stall occurs. Just pulled the throttle out of AB and back towards idle and the engine spooled right back up Bob

Dave, It's been a long time! Not sure I could give you anything very reliable on performance in the real plane vs SF2V. I do still have my F-100 flight manual (T.O. 1F-100D(I)-1), but it does not have all the flight performance charts that you would need to completely update the flight model. I would assume that TK would have used such detailed charts when he set up the original FM for the F-100. You might ask some of your contacts at Wright Patt if they could find a copy of T.O. 1F-100A-1-1. That may be the manual that has all the detailed performance charts for the F-100. I have a "Flight Characteristics" section in my -1, but I don't think it is as detailed as what you would need for the FM update. I could scan some of those pages if you would like to look at them. Bob

Well, it has been 40 years since I flew the F-100, but the one in SF2V seems a little underpowered. Seems to bleed airspeed to fast in pull-ups and turns. I find that I am having to use AB a lot to keep my airspeed where I want it to be in the sim. I don't remember having to use the burner that much in the real Super Sabre. Bob

Falcon, I don't see any problem from my end with putting the link on your Facebook page. I assume that Vimeo will work ok in that regard. Bob

I think the mid-air nap ignition got hit by some small arms fire just as it came off the wing. We were always flying down in that envelope with naps and high drag bombs. There was also a small explosion in front of my nose on the first strafing scene. I think that was also a "golden BB" from small arms fire that collided with one of my 20mm HEI rounds and blew it up. The bad guys were always firing out in front of us in hopes that we would fly through the bullet pattern and take a hit. My room-mate got shot down by small arms fire and he had to punch out over enemy territory. He landed in the top of some dense jungle tree folaige. The VC could not see where he was from the ground, so they started spraying the trees with machine gun fire in hopes of hitting him. They called in some more close air support and got the bad guys suppressed long enough to get a chopper in to pick him up. Bob

SkateZilla, Could you elaborate a little more on exactly what you did and what the result was? Bob

Hopefully, Dave will be able to get the video glitches worked out shortly so that all can view this as it was originally filmed. In the meantime, for those who might be interested in a little background on how I made this movie, I have attached a document that provides some details. Bob Background on F-100 Movie Production, By Bob Ward-1.doc

Yes, the footage was from my F-100D in Vietnam. The 35th TFW had all D models in 1970. There were a few C-models at Luke AFB where I went through training in 1969, but I cannot remember flying a C when I was at Luke. Bob

MigBuster, So are you saying you did see the F-100 and Super Sabre text at the top and bottom of the image? No, it is not encoded as H264 as far as I know. I just rendered the movie (avi) to mp4 format from Sony Vegas Movie Studio and sent it to Dave. I also sent it to him in a DVD format, but I don't think he can use that on his website. I can play the mp4 file fine from my hard drive using either Media Player or Quicktime. For some reason, Dave's upload is zoomed way in on the frames, and, there are no play/pause/stop controls at the bottom of the QuickTime window. I suggested that he just list the original mp4 file on the website and let people right click on it to select their program of choice to play the movie. I would think that would work. I just uploaded the movie to YouTube. I don't nkow if it will play to completion or be cut off at 15 minutes. I will know in a few more minutes. YouTube is processing the video as I write. Bob

MigBuster, Were you able to tell if QuickTime was zoomed in on the image frames and causing the loss of substantial image area? In the Intro there is a sequence where an F-100 is brought out of the mist with lightning bolts. During this sequence, you should be able to see "F-100" at the top of the screen image and "Super Sabre" at the bottom. Were you able to see this? I am using the same version of QuickTime that you referenced and I get the "zoomed in" effect which causes a substantial loss of image. Bob

Yes, I am having trouble viewing it as well from the forum link. I did get it to download, but the Quicktime viewer is causing it to zoom in on the image frames. In other words, you are missing about 40% of the picture on each frame, which really causes you to miss a lot of what is going on. I was also getting some stutters during playback. I have notified Dave about this problem and he said he would look into it. I can't put it on YouTube because it exceeds the 15 minute movie length allowed on YouTube. The movie is about 27 minutes long. The movie is renderd in a 4:3 aspect ratio, so if you try to stretch it out on a wide screen monitor, you may also cause the top and bottom of the image to get clipped. Let it play at 4:3. The file I sent to Dave is a large mp4 file. It plays great using Windows Media player. Plus, Media Player also has Stop, Pause, and Replay functions at the bottom of the screen. I could not find any such controls on the QuickTime player window. Hopefully, Dave will find a way to get this fixed so you can all watch it the way it was originally rendered. It is a great video and shows how realistic SF2 Vietnam is when merged in with my actual combat footage. Keep checking back so that you can view it in its proper format when Dave gets the kinks worked out. If you have any questions about the movie, just post them here and I will be happy to respond. Bob Ward

Lexx, Very impressive link. Has TK ever published anything about the source code that would specifically state what each variable does and how a change in the assigned numbers will change effects of the variable? Sounds like it is pretty much trial & error at this time. Is there anyway to produce sharp-edged cockpit shadows that change with sun angle? Bob

I have always felt the ground is a little too dark, i.e., it does not really have that "sun-lit" look that real terrain has when viewed from the air. Are there any separate adjustments that can be made to light up the ground a little more? Bob

Is there anyway to turn down the volume on the RHAW system without turning down the volume on everything else? Bob

Thanks Wrench. I will give that a try. Bob

I cannot find a key command to turn on the cockpit lights at night. CTRL-L seems to work for the exterior nav lights. I read somewhere about tweaking a cockpit.ini file to get the cockpit lights to activate, but I cannot find that file. Anyone have any luck geeting the cockpit lights to work? BOb

Thanks Streakeagle. Maybe one of these days we will get a patch that will give us actual back-lighting on each gage. I remember flying the original Lock-On a few years ago and the night-time cockpits on those planes were gorgeous - looked like the real thing. Seems like I even remember having landing lights. Bob

I admit up-front that I have no idea how sound files are created for flight sims. To all you talented mod artists, is there any way that a really, realistic external jet engine sound could be produced when going to an external camera view? I am talking about that deep, bone-rattling, thunderous roar that a Century Series fighter makes. I would love to go to an external view of a flight of 4 fighters and hear that deep roar as they go by. Are flight sim sound files synthetically made using some type of sound synthesis software or are they actual recording loops of the real thing? If I knew how to do this I would be willing to devote some time to it. Thanks, Bob

The external sounds on this clip are somewhat realistic, although still not as deep and thunderous as the real thing. I don't know if this is an in-game sound engine or if they inserted a sound track into the video. I think the Virtual Thunderbirds fly with the LOMAC engine. Bob

Since the CH Pro throttle does not have an AB detent, I am trying to find a way to use the full range of the throttle for 0 to 100% military power and then assign a button on the throttle to kick in the AB. Has anyone done this? Right now, my AB is cutting in at around 68% power. Thanks, Bob

Guys, I just added this post over at the CH Hangar to see if any of the CH folks can help on this issue. We need to figure out a way to remedy this problem. This is very unrealistic to be flying around in AB all the time. I cannot go past 68% power without lighting the AB. For one thing, this will cause you to run out of gas in a very short time. I wish I had some programming skills but I don't. So there is not a lot I can do to help out. I will try to get an E-Mail in to Thirdwire to see if they can do a simple patch that would allow CH throttles to use 100% power (without AB), and then add a a new keyboard command that would light the AB. As an interim measure, is there any way that we could calibrate the throttle so that the last half-inch of throttle movement would engage the AB? Maybe Bob Church would have some ideas. I am optimistic that we can get something worked out. Bob

Thanks, Dave. Bob